N. Korea to repatriate S. Korean man next week

Published : 2014-09-05 15:37
Updated : 2014-09-05 15:37

North Korea said Friday it would repatriate a South Korean man next week who entered the communist nation "illegally."

The man with the surname of Kim was arrested by the North's authorities after having trespassed into the North via a third country, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim is a resident of Anseong, a city about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, it said without revealing his age.

The KCNA did not provide details of when and where he was arrested.

It quoted Kim as saying he left the South after "finding it difficult" to live there. And he went to the third country and headed to the North "for no reason," the KCNA said.

Kim admitted to his crime of illegally entering the North and requested permission to live there along with his family in the South, said the KCNA.

But the North's relevant organs persuaded him to return to the South, it said.

The North's Red Cross has informed its southern counterpart of plans to repatriate him on Sept. 11 through the truce village of Panmunjom, the KCNA said. (Yonhap)